I walked home a different way in order to find new trash, and there was nothing. I walked and there was nothing, nothing, fragments of glass and paper, gum wrappers, dead leaves, in the dusk, in the half-light. Then. On the ground, embedded in a crunch of dead leaves, a lei, a ring of false flowers, purple pink yellow orange, surviving, surviving but also to-come, promising spring. I picked this up.

[Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower
We will grieve not, but rather find
Strength in what remains behind. WW]

I tried to discover whether the red orb was a balloon, a ball, or perhaps a planet, but when I came to where it had been, it was gone. As it had then become night, I deduce that it was a planet.